There are said to be 11 million coins in existence (their number is strictly controlled by mathematical genii) and the Winklevoss' holdings may be worth $11 million.

The mischievous will immediately wonder whether they hacked into Mark Zuckerberg's computers and, in an act of virtual revenge, stole them from under his virtual nose.

In truth, the Winklevii are now venture capitalists who are said to have purloined themselves a very nice $18 million lair in Los Angeles. They did, after all, make $65 million from their Facebook lawsuit.

Together with other forward-thinking entities such as Andreessen Horowitz -- which invested in a Bitcoiny company called OpenCoin -- they see the Bitcoin as an excellent way to make serious coin at some future date.

Indeed, Cameron Winklevoss told the Times: "People say it's a Ponzi scheme, it's a bubble. People really don't want to take it seriously. At some point that narrative will shift to 'virtual currencies are here to stay.' We're in the early days."

The Times also winkled out of the Winklevii that they have paid a Ukrainian programmer in Bitcoins to develop their Web site.

As with any idea that is new and seemingly outside the realm of both political and regulatory control, Bitcoin might well be what our future robot culture will require and even adore.

Perhaps one day they'll make a movie out of the story of its rise. It might be called "The Monetary Network."